In an open 2,000-square foot, second story Pine Ave. office dotted with computers, sports banners, couches, even a nine-foot basketball hoop, a Long Beach native named Steve Hansen spends two weeks a month working on his creation that well could turn out to be the latest Internet phenomenon.

The other two weeks he’s at his office in New York where he labors on the same intriguing venture in which he’s in partnership with Major League Baseball Advanced Media-mlb.com – the powerful Hollywood talent company, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and such renowned athletes as LeBron James, Derek Jeter, Peyton Manning, Ryan Howard and Jennie Finch.

It’s called Weplay, as in Weplay.com., and Hansen, a 1974 Wilson High graduate who grew up in Naples and attended Rogers Middle School, envisions that one day the only youth sports community website that connects players, parents, coaches and even professional athletes will become as imperative a part of the online social scene as MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Steve Hansen is quite steeped in credibility on the subject, since, after all, it was he who played the vital role in turning GeoCities into such a strong web entity that he was able to orchestrate its sale to Yahoo a few years back for a cool $5 billion, of which he received a “nice share.”

With an evangelical fervor, Hansen, a divorced father of two sons, Connor, 15, and Trevor, 12, says his new site has the potential to change the fabric of youth sports not only in America but also around the world, much like, say, Amazon has changed the purchasing habits of book buyers.

“This will allow for one-stop shopping for everyone involved in youth sports,” says Hansen, who maintains a residence on the Alamitos Bay peninsula. “It allows for a tremendous amount of social interaction, as coaches of all the youth sports can post schedules, scores, rosters, anything else.

“Say you have a son who plays in junior league soccer or water polo, and you want to get a videotape of his match. Now you can have potential access to the parents who attended the match, and can e-mail them and ask if any have a videotape of the match. And, if you get the videotape, it can be preserved in perpetuity.

“We also have a huge tutorial library on the site in which kids can find information giving them comprehensive instructions on all aspects of their sports.”

Even though Weplay has been up only a brief while and even though Hansen hasn’t yet mobilized a widespread marketing campaign for it, he says it already is receiving an average of more than 300,000 hits a month.

It’s not surprising that Hansen, who’s 52 but looks 10 years younger, is involved in such a project, since the USC graduate has an extensive business background going back to when he was a partner at KPMG where he became heavily involved doing the books for MGM and Universal.

After 13 years at KPMG where he befriended a lot of venture capitalists with whom he later did deals, he eventually accepted an executive position with Universal.

He would oversee the financial operations of its theme park division, and was instrumental in raising capital for new facilities in Japan and Orlando.

But, as is common with such folk whose emotional juices are stirred only by new challenges, he couldn’t resist an offer in 1997 from a small Santa Monica web hosting site called GeoCities.

It soon became the fifth most popular on the Web, and Hansen was strongly involved in its sale two years later to Yahoo before the Silicon bubble crashed.

In 2002, Hansen and his wife split up and equally split custody of their children, which resulted in Hansen, at a mere 45, deciding to retire and become a full-time father.

He would spend the next three years bonding closely with his sons, working out – he has been a triathlon athlete and even participated in an Iron Man event once in Hawaii – playing golf, sipping coffee each morning at Starbucks in Belmont Shore, and not doing much else of importance.

“The great thing is that I became closer to my sons and had a greater role in their lives,” he says.

In fact, his epiphany for his Weplay website came when he took his youngest one to Irvine one fateful day to enroll him in Pop Warner League Football.

He found the experience difficult.

“It was total chaos,” he says. “I had received confusing and a contradictory series of e-mails before the event. And, between the weight classifications, practice sites and trying to figure out what apparel to bring, it was a nightmare.”

He went home that night with an idea assaulting his senses, doodled incessantly on his son’s whiteboard, and came up with a fragmentary plan for what would morph into Weplay.

“I knew I was a capitalist at heart and hadn’t lost my 95 miles an hour fastball even though I hadn’t been using it for a long time,” he says. “And I realized that the ecosystem of youth sports hadn’t changed in 20 years, probably even longer. I had a simple belief that there had to be a way to make this part of parenting simpler.”

Soon, Steve Hansen enlisted Major League Baseball and CAA as investors in Weplay, as well as many famous athletes, all of whom have contributed childhood videos of themselves that can be found on the Weplay site.

“I just met with Derek Jeter in Tampa a couple of weeks ago, and he agreed to a Weplay contest in which the winner can spend two hours working out with him,” relates Hansen.

“The athletes believe in this concept as much as I do. I think it’s definitely going to change the way youth sports is presented.”

An unassuming fellow who favors jeans and t-shirts, Steve Hansen doesn’t act the part of someone whose worth is in the eight-figure category.

Heard the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach actually turned a profit, quite a tribute to the dynamic leadership of its boss, Jim Michaelian. Not too many companies are doing so these frightening financial days. …

Heard also Les Unger has the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race winner, Keanu Reeves, locked in for the 2010 event. But the famous actor must compete this time as a pro because of his checkered flag achievement last Saturday. …

It’s Not Exactly Napoleon On Elba, But How Can They Treat Our Joe So Shamefully?: Once again, the celebrated Italian restaurateur, Mr. Joe (The Fixer) Picarelli, spent the Toyota Grand Prix weekend in exile on Catalina Island, and members of the rowing community, especially the Van Bloms, John and Joan, will be thrilled to know who Picarelli is holding culpable for such perfidy – Marina Bureau Manager Mark Sandoval.

“For six straight years I was able to get a boat slip in front of the Yard House with no problem until Mark changed the rules,” says a downcast Picarelli, a well-known figure in the community. “First, he installed the lottery system, and this year he said a boat had to be at least 35 feet long to get a slip in that vicinity.

“My boat is 33 feet long, and I was quite willing to pay the extra costs. A friend of my from Dana Point with a 40-footer was given a slip, and a Long Beach guy like me who has spent more than $10,000 at the Grand Prix over the years was ignored.

“I found out slips also were sold to members of the Pacific Sailing Club, and when I tried to buy one from one of the members, he told me I could have it for $1,200. What’s that all about? The slips are $420, and so the guy wants to charge me three times the going rate.

“He should have been doing his business on StubHub. That’s unbelievable. A lot of shenanigans are going on with these slips. I tried to call Mark Sandoval last weekend, but I couldn’t get hold of him. I hear he was out of town.” …

I’m not sure anyone on the Grand Prix circuit throws a more festive party than the wealthy Signal Hill oil mogul, Mighty Mick Conner and his charming wife Gloria, as once again they turned their 17th floor Hyatt suite into a three-day bacchanal.

All the usual characters made appearances, meaning Man About Town Two-Fisted Ted Hulsey and his sweet girlfriend Marta Newmaster were there as were Lord Jimmy Wieser and, inevitably, Bad Stu Ledsam, as well as a 6-foot Kamikaze Kathy Spurlock lookalike whose first name also is Kathy and whose surname remains a compelling mystery. …

I have found too often that those who display excessive humility are only masking excessive vanity. …

In the first two games against Utah, Shannon Brown played better than two other Laker guards, starter Derek Fisher and reserve Jordan Farmar. In fact, if the 23-year-old, 6-foot-4 Brown continues to perform at such a high level, Farmar’s bench time might become lengthier. …

I’m not sure any big man in basketball other than Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan are playing better at the moment than Pau Gasol. …

Other than infidelities that never can be tolerated, the second most ruinous thing that can transpire in a romantic relationship is for one of the principals to spew hateful venom during an argument, which actually can be forgiven but never forgotten. …

I’ll be surprised if Oscar De La Hoya’s immense ego will allow him to stay retired long. …

Ever notice those people who constantly seek favors seldom are inclined to reciprocate. …

Dave Marshall did another superb job making sure traffic flowed smoothly during the Toyota Grand Prix. Indeed, if the Convention Center parking czar was as proficient at hitting baseballs when he was playing for the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets as he is at regulating cars, he already would have been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. …

Heading to Maui Monday for a week vacation to celebrate to their 10th wedding anniversary is the Long Beach Fun Couple, Brad and Canice Liebeck. Brad is a captain on the Long Beach Fire Department who also was a baseball star at Millikan High, Long Beach City College and San Diego State, while Canice is a Nordstrom Pacesetter who trains sales people for the organization…

I’m actually heading to Hawaii for the weekend, and, please, cross your fingers for my well-being, and, Dr. Frank Lowe, be ready upon my return because I’m set to be chaperoned around by Gary (Mad Dog) Derks, the legendary Millikan High graduate and carouser who owns a Waikiki nightclub and who just might hold the world record for causing friends to have liver transplants. …